START: ERNST: Hermann . . . are you unwell?
HERMANN: No. I’m sorry if my message caused you anxiety. What do you think? We haven’t decided where to hang it. Gretl favours the cloakroom.
ERNST: Well, it’s . . . not bad. I’m sorry Gretl doesn’t like it. Is she all right?
HERMANN: Oh, yes. She had retired when I came in. I’ve been out to dinner, Willi von Baer’s boys-only dinner to celebrate his birthday.
[... …]
END: HERMANN: His hero was Bismarck. If he had been able to choose his life, he said, he would have been a Prussian aristocrat.

He pauses.

If this ends badly . . . I’ve written a note for Gretl. Otherwise, there is no need for her to know anything. I ask that of you.

He makes his last appeal.

Ernst . . . we’re both Christians.

Tom Stoppard, Leopoldstadt. Grove